Writing is an essential part of one’s learning process. Be it from writing essays to research writing at the college level. However, it comes with the challenge of plagiarism among students.
Plagiarism is where you use the words of someone else as your own. It may also arise if you cite wrongly in paraphrase poetry . There are many forms of plagiarism, and one may fall victim to it unintentionally.
Though many may hold firm the belief that one should be punished for plagiarism, some don’t. Today’s writers collaborate with others or use the ideas of others in their material. Several studies conclude that second language students who may plagiarize, don’t intend to deceive.
Why Students Plagiarize
• Inadequate access to relevant information
In your research paper on paraphrase poems, depending on your arguments in the thesis, you have numerous places to look for the data to back your ideas. While this may give you a sigh of relief, it is only handy if you have the right research skills.
The Library Catalogue or its electronic journals may not be the first option for the student. With the ease of access to the internet, one may resort to doing their research over the internet.
• Incorrect Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is a skill that requires practice. You need to read and understand a text before you can efficiently paraphrase it. Remember you don’t want to lose the meaning of the original version.
From your understanding of what you read, you then use your own words to pass the same message across. You also need to remember to cite the source of that particular information.
• Lacking Time Management Skills
College life offers you much more freedom than what probably had while in high school. There’s so much you could do, and so little time for it all. Or you may presume to have enough time to indulge in everything and push some tasks to a later date.
When time is running out for you to carry out your research and hand in your thesis, most students end up copy-pasting the work of others. One doesn’t have the sufficient time needed to work on their research paper, as they had hoped.
• Improper Referencing styles
Each writing assignment comes with a set of instructions to follow. From writing style, tone to format. In a research paper, they are three common writing styles, APA, MLA and the Chicago style.
Each has unique features to distinguish it from the rest. The same applies to referencing styles. You need to understand the format and punctuation that applies to each form.
The State of Plagiarism in Academic Writing
In academic writing the skill of using sources is complex. On the other hand, supervisors or teachers place a high value on acknowledging sources. To master this skill, one requires a significant deal of practice.
Acknowledging information from your sources shows that you have read widely. However, millennials may feel like having many citations in their work may decrease their authority. More so, student writers in high school may have used textbooks that had no quotes.
It would be so even in college. To add salt to the wound; some institutions merely lift their plagiarism policies from other organizations. There so much disagreement on what is plagiarism and what isn’t.
To serve a particular way of thinking; one’s words have to fall into a specific pattern. Our ideas emanate from what we read or the discussions we have with friends. It results in difficulty of separation our views from those of others.
On verbatim reuse in a research paper, language is formulaic. Hence, one doesn’t need to use attribution on collocations, idioms, or co-occurring words. It is often the attempt of students to try and sound say, as a biologist.
It causes one to adopt patchwriting. For one to learn the language as used in a particular field, one opts to use their own, to piece together the parts of text from a source. It makes it difficult for an individual to cite sources.
Several kinds of research show that one shouldn’t be punished for patchwriting. In addition to this, some scholars are exploring ways how it can help in developing the writing skills of a student.
Conclusion
We still have a long way to curb plagiarism in paraphrasing poem. As long as there is no definitive definition of what it entails and adoption of strategies to eliminate such instances.
